A restaurant named Me So Hungry: tasteless?

Plaintain fritters stuffed with bacon and cheese and topped with a fried egg, pico de gallo and avocado will be served at Me So Hungry Hip Hop Breakfast Cafe when the West Des Moines restaurant opens in August.(Photo: Special to the Register)

Sarah Cattoor and her husband, Ryan Greening, who are opening the restaurant that they renamed Eggs & Jam, said the reaction to the restaurant's original name blindsided them.

"The name came only from a love of the '90s and we had no intention to be offensive to other cultures," they wrote in an email Wednesday. "We simply wanted to appreciate good music and make amazing breakfast food."

The Huffington Post article referenced an Iowa Informer article that reported on negative comments left on the restaurant's Facebook page.

A Dong, a popular Asian restaurant in nearby Des Moines, joined in the debate Tuesday.

“The name Me So Hungry is incredibly tasteless and the responses to criticism, tone-deaf,” a Facebook post from the business reads. “Whether intentional or not, their decision serves as a potent reminder of each and every single time a member of our community was belittled for being Asian.”

A Dong restaurant's post said it hoped Me So Hungry's owners would reconsider the name. Not doing so "would seemingly present tacit support for a culture that continues to undermine the life and inclusiveness that Asians in this community — including us — have worked so hard to achieve."

The name Me So Hungry is presumably a play on “me so horny,” a comment that a Vietnamese prostitute uttered to American soldiers in the movie Full Metal Jacket. The quote was used in a 1988 song by the rap group 2 Live Crew and again in Sir Mix-a-Lot’s 1991 Baby Got Back.

“It's astounding how many levels of cultural appropriation and blatant racism are baked into this restaurant,” a comment on The Des Moines Register's original story about the restaurant reads. “And what's with the potshot at Asian vernacular?”

"What if we took cultural appropriation and made it a family-style breakfast cafe?"

A handful of eateries from Austin and San Francisco to India and Saudi Arabia all carry the name Me So Hungry, as well as the similarly named Miso Hungry sushi bar in Santa Barbara, Calif.

Cattoor said last week that her restaurant will have a '90s hip-hip theme and menu items such as fried chicken and waffles, Dutch Baby puffed pancakes and breakfast poutine.

Crispy chicken and champagne waffles with a mimosa marmalade will be on the menu at the new breakfast cafe Me So Hungry set to open in August in West Des Moines.(Photo: Special to the Register)

“It’s going to be a really fun place and all the (1990s) music will be family friendly,” she said.

The newly named Eggs & Jam is scheduled to open Aug. 9 in West Des Moines.

"Our intent was to create buzz and interest tied to a popular ‘90s song," a statement Wednesday from the restaurant's owners read. "However, it is clear we did not understand how it would be perceived and how it could offend people in our community. We look forward to opening in August and providing people with a fun eating environment built around the music of the 1990s."